This collection encompasses 50-plus years of interviews, readings, speeches, and reports on the vibrant literary scene in Minnesota. Not only home to giants F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis, our state has an array of incredible contemporary poets, novelists and playwrights. Their words make up majority of this collection.
Repeatedly being named the “Most Literate City in the United States,” the Twin Cities has played host to numerous visiting national writers via book tours, festivals, and lectures. Many recordings of these are also included.
This project was funded by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission.
February 1, 1980 - MPR’s Mark Heistad reports on a group in Madison, Minnesota, that are writing their own soap opera. Heistad interviews local author Carol Bly, who is heading the project.
February 8, 1980 - Minnesota novelist Tim O'Brien speaks about and reads from his work The Nuclear Age at a Worthington Community College event.
March 1, 1980 - The Milkweed Chronicle is not a run-of-the-mill newspaper, printed on stiff, durable paper and contains poems and illustrations. As the paper publishes its first issue, MPR’s Rich Dietman interviews guests Nancy Keating, publication’s business manager; Emilie Buchwald, editor; and Randy Scholes, art director.
March 8, 1980 - Jackpine Bob Cary, Ely writer and storyteller, pitches his candidacy for U.S. president in a humorous conversation with MPR’s Rich Dietman.
March 11, 1980 - Author Susan Pearson and illustrator Charles Mikolaycak discuss children's literature and answer listeners' questions.
March 14, 1980 - MPR’s Mary Stucky talks with archivist Andrea Hinding, the editor of a new two-volume historical reference book, Women's History Sources: A Guide to Archives and Manuscript Collections in the United States, put out by the University of Minnesota Press.
March 17, 1980 - John Orlock, resident playwright for the Cricket Theater in Minneapolis, describes his play Revolution of the Heavenly Orbs. It is the first time Orlock has attempted a three-act play.
March 18, 1980 - MPR’s Dan Olson interviews Judith Younger, an instructor at University of Minnesota’s Elementary Education Department. Younger discusses issues concerning children's literature, including the use of social themes and the censorship of some works.
March 24, 1980 - An interview with John Orlock, resident playwright for the Cricket Theater in Minneapolis. Orlock talks about the field of drama and his work Revolution of the Heavenly Orbs.
April 19, 1980 - In an ongoing conversation with MPR’s Rich Dietman about his humorous campaign for U.S. presidency, Ely storyteller Jackpine Bob Cary runs down his potential cabinet picks.